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Abbas urges efforts to bring Palestinian refugees into West Bank

Xinhua, September 6, 2015 Adjust font size:

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday ordered the ambassador to the UN to take immediate actions aiming at absorbing displaced Palestinian refugees into the West Bank.

Abbas has been making contacts with the UN, the European Union and other relevant actors and urging them to pressurize the Israeli government to allow Palestinian refugees back into the West Bank, according to the Palestinian presidency statement.

"This action is intended to help stop the Palestinian refugees' suffering and death as a result of the ongoing displacement, especially refugees fleeing the war in Syria," the statement said.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) asked the Syrian government to improve the conditions of Palestinian refugees in Syria to help prevent them from seeking refuge in Europe.

PLO Executive Committee member Ahmed Majdalani told Xinhua on Saturday that the PLO's initiative came from the dangers of the refugees' journeys that "led hundreds of them to drown to death."

Majdalani added that the increasing numbers of Palestinian refugees migrating to Europe jeopardizes the Palestinian right of return to their lands when they become citizens of other countries.

Last week, Majdalani led a PLO delegation to Syria for a three-day visit, meeting with Syrian officials there.

He said that the delegation gave ideas regarding providing Palestinian refugee camps with more safety and security, solving the issue of refugees who left the camp, and granting them freedom of movement among Syrian provinces.

"We expressed our concerns of the growing Palestinian migration out of Syria, where over 200,000 Palestinians have left the country. So, there is a need to have better circumstances for them to stay in Syria," he told Xinhua.

Palestinian figures said that around 3,000 Palestinians were killed in Syria since the beginning of the Syria crisis four years ago, leading 200,000 Palestinians of overall 700,000 refugees to be displaced.

The Geneva-based Euro-Mediterranean Observatory for Human Rights said that more than 380,000 refugees, mostly from Syria, have arrived in Europe since the beginning of this year. Endit